Today we have big data science, that laughs at the old statisticians for data overfitting. Tomorrow, I envision we will have big papers. In fact I am already seeing such a trend. Latex files are nowadays modularized into sections, not only for textbook files, but mere conference papers. Soon we will be talking about object-oriented latex files, as a way of maximizing jargon reuse. Maybe even ruby-on-rail papers, where a paper prototype is built, as a preemptive declaration of creative monopoly. Not only will humans have a hard time parsing through the technical details, computers will also. A successful paper will be a synergism of human and computers, and the highest ranking referees will be equipped with the state-of-art computers, to leverage their biological ones.

It will become impossible to compile within reasonable time all the latex file a top academic publishes in a lifetime. In fact, it would be silly to live a life that can be easily understood by any computing entity within the lifetime of the universe. This is the age where bitcoin is replaced by braincoin, denominated in paper parsing time. Humans have attained the glorious state that for all subsequent generation, there is no longer creation, but discovery. The very faculty of creativity becomes obsolete; an eagle’s eye, especially one grown on a bookworm, however, is a sexy trait. Humans will be racing against the heat death (though I am starting to disbelieve in light of quantum reversibility).